Wed, Feb 24, 2010
SAR Automatic Flight Control, ADS-B Among The Improvements
Sikorsky announced a new series of upgrades for the S-92
helicopter at Heli-Expo in Houston Monday. The enhancements include
a SAR Automatic Flight Control System, which allows the aircraft to
fly a pre-programmed coupled approach and reduces pilot workload in
the search and rescue environment, Automatic Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) capability for Gulf of Mexico region
operators (co-developed with PHI) that improves safety and on-time
performance, and a load-sensing cargo hook that automatically
updates aircraft weight and balance readings.
S 92 File Photo
"The S-92 helicopter fleet has grown to 105 aircraft operating
throughout the world, with the fleet recently surpassing the
200,000 flight-hour milestone. Customers have shown strong
allegiance to this helicopter as we continue to keep it fully
modernized with the latest technologies," said Carey Bond,
President of the company's Sikorsky Global Helicopters
business. "Our practice has been to continually improve all
our products, and the S-92 helicopter is no exception."
Starting this October, Sikorsky says it plans to introduce a
strengthened main transmission housing that has been developed for
the H-92 helicopter, a militarized variant of the commercial S-92
helicopter. The new housing is currently in the certification
process and is designed to reduce unscheduled maintenance by
eliminating such possibilities as the foot-mount cracks recently
experienced by some operators. The new housing will have a much
longer life than the current housing and will be manufactured by
Sikorsky for retrofit on existing aircraft and installation on all
new S-92 and H-92 helicopters.
H 92 File Photo
"As we continue to develop the higher gross weight H-92
helicopter variant, we will identify additional opportunities to
migrate new technologies to the S-92 helicopter platform," Bond
added. 'When a customer buys a Sikorsky helicopter, he or she
does so with the knowledge that we are committed to keeping
it current while reducing operating costs and maintaining high
availability rates."
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